May Day.................

May the first, May Day. The beginning of summer, or at least the beginning of the season. Going back to when I was in school beginning around age five I suppose I have memories of May Day. I remember my Dad working diligently on a costume for me to wear in the parade. I was a ladybug. We would parade through the village to the Village Green. There we would have a fete and there would be a maypole. Kids would dance around the Maypole and they would choose and crown a May Queen. A long and timeless tradition.


The Maypole.....the Ribbon dance


Dancers gather in a circle, each holding a coloured ribbon attached to a much smaller pole. As the dance commences the ribbons are intertwined and plaited either on to the pole itself or into a web around the pole. The dancers may then retrace their steps exactly in order to unravel the ribbons.



Queen Guinevere being Queen of the May

The traditional folk dancers, the Morris men. They are witty, funny and very clever. English records date back to 1448 for the payment of Morris dancers. Traditionally they were also mumming plays especially at court.


May Blossoms, the whole country is full of blossoms when the May is out.

Bringing in the May and crowning the May Queen.


The traditions are of course Pagan. They go back to before Christianity and although Pagan, are not Satanic. They stem from the desire for all things new. For fertility and on May Day anything goes. The maidens could mate with whom ever they chose on that day. They could go to the woods and have anyone they desired. The whole idea being that procreation was the thing. For birds, beasts and people alike. They did so for the crops to thrive. Now we as Christians do not believe in such things, but we can remember. We can look back on those days with maybe a little melancholy.

These people worshiped nature, they saw spirits in all things. They believed the trees, the plants all living things had spirits. I believe so as well. They deserve our respect. These people needed to respect nature it was what kept them alive. God created all things and Pagans saw God in all things.
They believed on May 1st Beltane that the veil between the worlds was thinner. That we could see the Fae, the Fairy folks. Who is to say?



Happy May Day.